If you don’t know, Windows Skydrive is Microsoft’s offering of free online storage – previously it was only 5gig but now they are upping this limit to 25gig, more than likely to bring them in line with other free online storage providers out there (me cynical, nah!)

Anyways I played about with it a few months ago and promptly left it dead for the following reasons:

You can only upload a max file size of 50 meg, pretty useless nowadays

There are no tools to bulk upload many files so if you have 1000 files to upload, you had to use their upload form which if I recall only allowed 5 files at a time!!!

There is no way to map the service to a drive on your system

I’m going to keep an eye on this as it’s something I’m looking at seriously as online backup, I’d like the following features implementing which I feel are definitely required in order for it to be taken seriously by users:

Remove the max file size restrictions or at least increase it to something usable

Provide an API so that developers like us can write upload tools that actually do what we want them to do

Give us a better bulk upload experience

Automatic sync would be great

Possibly built in encryption (although I would encrypt anything I upload to there anyway) – not that I don’t trust you Microsoft, but I don’t!

I’ve also just discovered Windows Live FolderShare – don’t know anything about it yet apart from the fact it’s about to be replaced by Windows Live Sync in December but i’m going to check it out and see how these services complement SkyDrive………………

Techradar.com has pointed out that Microsoft are to offer free Malware tools to comabat the increasing problem of botnets etc on users PC’s

Microsoft is getting serious about global security, offering a free anti-malware package code-named Morro that has been specially designed for low cost PCs in developing nations.

The software will be available in the second half of 2009 and will provide ‘comprehensive protection’ from ‘the majority of online threats’, including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans.

Morro is based on – and will replace – the current Windows Live OneCare subscription service, although it has been architected to use fewer computing resources, making it ideal for low-bandwidth scenarios or less powerful PCs.

Also destined for the chop is Equipt, Microsoft’s shortlived excursion into consumer software-as-a-service, offering cloud storage of files, updates to Microsoft Office packages and Windows Live OneCare, for an annual cost of £59. Microsoft Equipt launched just one month ago.

Microsoft vs malware

Amy Barzdukas, Senior Director at Microsoft, said: “This new, no-cost offering will give us the ability to protect an even greater number of consumers, especially in markets where the growth of new PC purchases is outpaced only by the growth of malware.”

Morro will deliver the same core protection against malware as Microsoft’s enterprise solutions, but without the additional non-security features found in many consumer security suites, which probably means password managers, identity protection software and online secure storage.

“By offering basic protection at no charge to the consumer, Microsoft is promoting a safer environment for PCs, service providers and e-commerce itself, since it is through unprotected PCs that the worst threats are introduced to the system as a whole,” said Roger Kay, Founder of Endpoint Technologies Associates.

Cross-platform support

Morro will be available as a stand-alone download for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Windows Live OneCare will continue to be sold until June 30, 2009, and all existing subscriptions to it will be honoured.

Microsoft will end retail sales of Equipt within the next 90 days and halt subscription services in the first half of 2009. The company says that customers who subscribed to this service continue ‘to get value from it’ until the end of their subscription period – October 2009 – and will provide detailed information about ‘customer options’ early next year.

If those ‘options’ are the same as US users of Equipt received, UK purchasers can expect a free license key to Microsoft Office Home and Student (worth about £70) and possibly even a pro-rated refund, which isn’t a bad deal.

About time they took it seriously, mind you nowadays i’m using a Mac 🙂